711.94/2594⅜
The Chinese Ambassador (Hu Shih) to the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)55
In three telegrams dated November 27 and 28, Dr. Quo Tai-chi and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek expressed their confidence in the President and the Secretary of State and in the fundamental principles of their foreign policy.
Both of them have studied my long telegram of November 24 reporting the discussions between the Secretary and the four envoys at the office of the Secretary, and also my report of the conversation between the Secretary and myself in his apartment on the evening of the 25th. Both the Generalissimo and the Foreign Minister were reassured by the sympathetic and helpful spirit underlying these conversations.
They wished me to point out to the United States Government the following facts which, because of very great distance, might not have been fully appreciated on this side of the ocean:
- (1)
- The almost incredibly great faith of the Chinese people in the efficacy of the economic pressure on our enemy which has been in force for the last four months is such that the mere rumor of any possibility of its relaxation has already begun to produce a truly panicky feeling throughout China.
- (2)
- Such panicky feeling has been caused partly by Japanese propaganda which, during the past week (especially on November 24, 25, 26), had broadcast reports of an approaching general relaxation of freezing and trade restrictions by the United States and Japanese Governments on the understanding that Japan would undertake not to move southward and that the United States would not interfere with the war in China.
- (3)
- The whole question is psychological and spiritual: It is a question of the morale of a whole people which has been fighting a very hard war for four years and a half, and which, in its hardship and long suffering, has pinned its great hope on the international situation turning in our favor and, in particular, on the economic sanctions that the democratic powers have been able to put into force during the last months. It is no exaggeration to say that this question fundamentally affects the spirit of our fighting forces and our people.
- (4)
- In his telegram to me, the Foreign Minister tells me that the Government had information that a certain leader in the North (not specified by name56) might be so shaken by a possible weakening of our international position as to make moves detrimental to the prosecution of our war of resistance.
Both Generalissimo Chiang and Dr. Quo want me to convey to the Secretary of State their observation that Japan has been so weakened by the long war in China and by the economic pressure of the democratic powers that she cannot afford to risk a war with the great naval powers.
In a latest telegram to me, Dr. Quo expresses great gratification in the latest reply of the Secretary to the Japanese envoys, which, he understands, reaffirms the fundamental principles repeatedly enunciated by the United States Government.